NPU objects to police letter to journo

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By Our Reporter
The Nepal Press Union (NPU) has said its attention has been drawn towards the letter the Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu wrote to some online journalists asking them to submit documents to it.
The NPU, through a press release on Monday, stated that it was concerned by the letter in which the Metropolitan Police Range has asked the journalists to furnish the papers related to the publication in some media of the so-called ‘genuine’ and ‘fake’ performance evaluation sheets of the then Deputy Inspector General of Police, Nawaraj Silwal, as well as the source of this.
“A free press can publish matter related to various issues of society that it has received from its source. This letter has blatantly violated the principle that the press would not be obliged to disclose the source,” reads the press release issued by NPU general secretary Ajaya Babu Shivakoti.
The NPU said it believed that it would be better for the police, an agency that is responsible for carrying out investigation, to inquire into the matter by including the accused in the case and the side benefiting from this scam into the ambit of investigation rather than asking the media of mass communication to disclose the source for its own convenience, following the order of the respected court to open investigation in the matter.
The NPU has also urged all sides concerned to be conscious towards not creating hurdles in the works of journalists in a way to discourage them against the universal values and principles of freedom of the press and expression, and the norms of the constitutional and laws of Nepal.